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Getting the most out of micro ingredient systems
8 Plays7 months ago
In this episode of the Feed & Grain Podcast, host Steven Kilger, managing editor of Feed & Grain Magazine, talks with Brady Gaalswyk, co-president and 2nd generation owner of Easy Automation. The discuses micro ingredient systems, from how they improve feed mill efficiency, how big they can get, when they aren’t the best option for an ingredient and new technology that can make them more accurate and save employees more time.
Podcast sponsored by Pneumat Systems.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, everyone. My name is Stephen Kilger. I'm the managing editor for Feeding Grain magazine and the host of the Feeding Grain podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive deep into the issues affecting the feed manufacturing, grain handling, and allied industries. Today's episode is brought to you by the Binwip from New Mat Systems. The powerful dual impact Binwip removes the toughest buildup and blockages in industrial storage silos without hazardous silo entry. Learn more today at binwip.com.
Guest Introduction and Role
00:00:29
Speaker
For today's episode, my guest is Brady Galzwick, co-president and second generation owner of EZ Automation. We're talking about micro ingredient systems, from how they improve feed mill efficiency, how big they can get, when they aren't the best option for an ingredient, and the new technology that can make them even more accurate and save employees time.
00:00:49
Speaker
I hope you enjoy the interview. I really enjoy talking to Brady. And if you want to help out the podcast and are listening to this in a podcasting app, please rate us and subscribe. If you're listening online, sign up for the Feeding Grain newsletter industry watch. Now onto the show. Hi Brady. Thanks for joining me today. Can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and what you do for the industry?
00:01:09
Speaker
You bet. Well, thanks, Steven. Allowing us to join a little bit of background about myself. My name is Brady Galswick, co-president here at EAS Automation, as well as a part of the second generation, originally started by my father. So I've been involved in the industry through our family many years, and our focus is around feed mill and agronomy automation, specifically feed mill equipment.
00:01:31
Speaker
I always forget that you're a second generation. I feel like I need to get you and some other guys on just for that conversation. What's it like grow up in this industry? Cause it's gotta be a unique experience, especially looking at it from someone like me who's came into it out of college and never did anything with it.
Explaining Micro Ingredient Systems
00:01:48
Speaker
Well, we're here today to talk about what is a micro ingredient system and how does it work at a typical feed mill?
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah. So a micro ingredient system is essentially to be adding those smaller inclusion amounts, which typically focus on the vitamins, the minerals or potentially the medications as well. They get added as part of the female ration. Our micro system, most commonly the female would be adding those by hand ads. So weighing each individual ingredient out by hand.
00:02:19
Speaker
So by implementing a micro-ingredient system, there's a lot of benefits that we can expand on. But the first one, of course, is not the need for that labor and having to sit there and weigh out each one of those ingredients over and over again.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it seems like in the old days, seed mixing used to kind of have more feeling to it. Now it's much more of a science, right? Like there are definitive things that you need in and certain amounts for any recipe you're doing. So how do these systems kind of like ensure that accuracy and consistency in a way that even a hand batching system wanted to? Yeah. So as you mentioned, it's kind of interesting that in some ways we have so much the mill automated
00:02:58
Speaker
Sometimes this hand add part of the mill isn't as automated, but actually, even though these ingredients have a small inclusion rate, so it doesn't seem like you're adding very much.
00:03:06
Speaker
Those can actually be some of the most expensive ingredients for the total ration and the most, the ones that need to be the most precise for both a pricing, a costing standpoint, and even more importantly, to make sure it is matching up with what that formula called for, why the nutritionist put that into the formula and ensuring that the animals then perform to their, their peak. Even just little changes in not putting the right amount can have a huge impact.
00:03:34
Speaker
as compared to maybe some of those other main ingredients, which are more commonly even automated that just really emphasizes the importance of automating in a micro ingredient system. So how it does that a little bit is what it's doing is it's weighing out each individual ingredient. So the benefit of that is that that implements the automation where it is weighing out that ingredient, saying how much it called for the exact precise amount that it was added and then being very precise in the amount that was added.
00:04:04
Speaker
And then the full traceability of that, where for a hand-aid system, it was actually implemented ways to improve the accuracy and traceability of that as well. But by being able to look back and see exactly how much was weighed out really just gives a lot of confidence to the mill and ultimately the producer or the animal owner that feed was produced in a way that was requested and very accurate.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah, and it gets that consistency in product, right? You want your customers to be able to know that they're buying the exact same formula that they bought last time. Not any differences, no changes, no one guy accidentally does another scoop of calcium in there by accident.
00:04:45
Speaker
messes the whole
Selection and Design Considerations for Micro Ingredient Systems
00:04:46
Speaker
thing up. If I'm a feed mail manager and I am looking to either invest in a micro ingredient system for my current mail or I'm building a new one, what are some of those factors that they should really be considering when selecting a micro ingredient system? Because they come in all kinds of, well, they all look roughly the same, but they come in many different sizes and shapes, right?
00:05:09
Speaker
Micro ingredient systems can come all different sizes and shapes and can kind of ask why all these different ones, but they each have their specific application or I should say specific range as well as price points. Some are more economically made for that smaller feed milk. It's still important that they have a micro system. They just don't put as many tons through that. So therefore they're looking for a little, the more economic and then medium and all the way up to, you know, very complex, very sophisticated micro ingredient systems that
00:05:38
Speaker
very same equipment and technology could be utilized in human food consumption or, or pet food consumption or the like. So it just has a wide range of types and those kinds of finishes, the type of hardware that's provided. But first thing they do when we're considering a micro ingredient system is basically to look at what are the ingredients that you're putting that in by hand edge or, or that type of inclusion and which ones make the most sense to replace the micro ingredient system.
00:06:08
Speaker
This really can depend on the type of feed mill that it is. So like a commercial mill where you maybe have a wide range of species, a wide range of customers, everybody has a little bit different variation or different types of ingredients they want to put in hand ads. Quite frankly, it might never make sense to have a micro bin for absolutely every single type of ingredient they could throw at you.
00:06:30
Speaker
So what you do there is then maybe look at the most common, that 80-20 rule, right? What is going to have most bang for its buck and what are those ingredients that get put in almost every batch or on a consistency and identify those and allocate that. It's much more straightforward. If you're an integrator or you're producing the same type of feed for a specific species.
00:06:53
Speaker
that your choice of hand ads and those type of ingredients is just going to be much more limited. So therefore it's just going to make even that much more sense and likely not need as many bins. From there, we usually look at, I have people give me example formulas or we look at what's the most, some of the most common formulas. What are those inclusion rates of those specific ingredients? Total batch, how big is your mixer? So how much not only are we putting in of each ingredient and
00:07:21
Speaker
calculate the right amount of scales and how to spread it over the right amount of scales to hit your correct batching times, but also from a capacity standpoint, right? Some formulas may only need 20 pounds of this ingredient. Some formulas where if it's a premix might need 150 pounds of this ingredient. We need to set that microsystem up to be able to handle both of those. And so that might look like a different type of micro, a different type of scaling system. It all just really depends on the specific application.
00:07:50
Speaker
And that makes a lot of sense. Some facilities out there have dozens and dozens of formulas with really small, small ingredient needs for depending on what stage of the animal they're in and all that, all that jazz, which is completely different topic. But there's also hand add stations that, you know, they weigh the product too, to make all that more accurate. So even if you're having to add some of those ingredients yourselves, it's not like the old days where you just kind of gas based on the measurement. It's all that, all that can be automated, even your hand adding stuff.
00:08:19
Speaker
Correct. I mean, just for some general rules of thumb that we look at, you know, if you're an integrator, if you're on the poultry side of things, or commonly you're maybe having that eight bins to 16 bin micro. If on the swine side of things, maybe more like that 16 to 20 bin micro. Again, on the commercial side, just what makes the most sense for your application, how much
00:08:42
Speaker
hand edge of trying to eliminate. We've done several systems. One of the largest was two microsystems, each with 40 bins. So the total of 80 bins on that. And then they actually had a 12 bin loss in weight system as well. So close to a hundred different overnight, but close to a hundred different ingredients through some type of microsystem and different ones allocated different systems, depending on the inclusion rates and requirements around each.
00:09:08
Speaker
And you mentioned that sometimes depending on what ingredients you need to have in the formulation might change how you want the system designed. Does it involve like how much they stick and all that kind of stuff? Does all that go into the calculation of what you need?
00:09:23
Speaker
going to different types, as well as a lot of it's based on the total batch size and how much capacity we're going to need. One specific difference is when we're looking at those very, very expensive or precise ingredients, such as medications, where not only does that be very precise and how much they put in.
00:09:40
Speaker
But also we're going to want to reconcile that inventory at the end of the runs and want to have the weight of the individual bin. That's a great fit for a loss in weight type system because it's able to dispense it out, be able to be very accurate, do multiple bins simultaneously. And a great application for that is actually dispensing directly into a mixer.
00:10:01
Speaker
Well, our gain in weight, what happens is it comes out of the microbend into some type of scale, then that gets dropped into a conveyor to the mixer. So that's very common and it's most economical for most ingredients. But, you know, there are some transfer points along that way for potential for contamination for medication or a loss in weight system. We can put them just directly over the mixer and truly into the same hole that the hand that would be getting dropped into. So there's no chance for contamination between batches.
00:10:31
Speaker
So what are the common challenges you find people having when they are thinking about kind of adding one to either an existing mill or even building around it? What are some of the challenges you find people run into when they're implementing this kind of system into their feed processing?
Implementation Challenges in Existing Mills
00:10:46
Speaker
Well, no doubt with an existing mill, the hardest challenge is space constraints.
00:10:52
Speaker
because everybody thinks they build their meal big enough and just like a house or garage where you fill up that space. So finding the space for a micro ingredient system in the existing meal is one of the biggest challenges. You have to have the space for the micro itself and you have to also think about
00:11:09
Speaker
How is the forklift going to access it or access the platform in order to get close enough to drop those bags off to then dump into the microsystem, as well as then from a conveyance standpoint. So from the microsystem to the mixer, how is conveyor going to be through there? The more horizontal and the shorter the distance that that is transferred, the better.
00:11:32
Speaker
decreases the risk of contamination. Now it's insane that we've designed our systems to be very flexible in order to give us the most amount of different variations to fix it in. So maybe that's putting all the bins on one side. We have also the ability to have either very large bins, medium sized bins or very small bins where you can fit two bins essentially into the same footprint as just one. The benefit of that is maybe you don't have a lot of space. And even though it'd be nice to have
00:11:59
Speaker
storage. You only can fit in this space so we can custom design the system to fit in that space as well as work with the millwright or end customer in coming on site during the measurements laying it out helping to figure out how to route the conveyor and sometimes just an outside perspective.
00:12:17
Speaker
is really great. It's a little bit like, you know, sometimes you kind of get used to looking at your house a certain way and you think it would be good to have it one way. Well, we're able to come on site, work with the customer, maybe bring a couple of different opinions or options to them, how we could do it, and then come back, draw it up and be able to see those in 3D format to really get a handle of how this would fit, how this would flow.
00:12:40
Speaker
And that's good to hear because I always hate when new technology to implement it, people need to build a whole new mill because that's just not realistic for most people. And all feed mills should be able to benefit from the newest improvements in these things if they can. So it's nice to see you being able to come out because you're the knowledgeable one too. So you know what will fit.
00:13:01
Speaker
Another common thing that we're seeing these days is the concept of going from no microsystem to a microsystem. We also see variations from there.
00:13:12
Speaker
Maybe they have an older microsystem where they just have all their bins or all their ingredients, say 20, 24, 30, all on one scale. Well, the problem is that is if it's on one scale, if it's a gain in weight system, it can only weigh up one ingredient at a time. So they said, Hey, we increased our mixer size or we've sped up our capacity. We need to weigh up these micro ingredients faster. So I've done actually in several mills, I've taken that same footprint that that older style microsystem was in.
00:13:40
Speaker
split that up into two different scales. So half of the bins were on one scale, half on another. And potentially again, because they're utilizing more ingredients to pushing more through the mill, also implementing a tote system, we can unload bulk bags as part of it as well. So they can even split that what was one scale over to really three, two micro ingredient scales in a tote system.
00:14:03
Speaker
So therefore you're essentially triple the speed of that way up as well as on the toad system for those very highest inclusion rates, not having to handle all those 50 pound bags, but instead do it with a forklift and full 2000 pound bags. I've seen mills where that was the choke point enough that by doing that increase their production of their entire mill between 20 and 30% because it was just waiting on those micros.
00:14:29
Speaker
And if you can use kind of a bulk bag system, why not? Can't be fun hauling over those 50 pound bags and unloading them in.
00:14:37
Speaker
Absolutely. I mean, we see benefits on the tote system between handling the bags, getting them from the supplier, any potential liability issues of lifting those bags and stuff. It's just much smoother to not have to. I mean, each bulk bag is literally 40, 50 pound bags, right? So it's a significant, significant savings. As well as when you're talking about those larger inclusion rates, it is a good fit because they can actually auger them out or feed them out at a faster rate with larger augers than a micro system would have.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah. And you don't have to do it so often, which would be very nice. One of the things that I, I mean, they look, micro ingredients, they look complicated, right? Just a bunch of smaller bins that go out into one thing. What is the maintenance like on a system like
Maintenance and Efficiency Benefits of Micro Ingredient Systems
00:15:18
Speaker
this? Is it how often do people have to maintain it? How do you make sure it's functioning properly? In a lot of ways they are pretty low maintenance. There is definitely moving parts on them, but it is relatively low maintenance. Just generally checking it out, visually inspecting it.
00:15:34
Speaker
Again, depending on the type of scaling system, gaining weight scale system, it can be good to open those access covers every once in a while and visually inspect to make sure you're not getting any buildup or carry over contamination. And these ingredients that go through those microsystems are so often the most hard to handle ingredients in a mill. So they're the sticky ingredients or the dusty ingredients and they can build up with knots. So it's good to have a little bit of maintenance to ensure that that
00:16:03
Speaker
tub is getting cleaned out properly or that any funnel scale is cleaning out properly, any butterfly valves are closing properly, and just the overall, also the exterior side of things, right? If you're not taking care of it and the exterior of it is getting dusty or dirty, they could potentially contaminate and just not last as long. We also even have ability
00:16:23
Speaker
to help prevent that on the front end by having systems that have a vacuum system on the lid, so that when you open the lid and dumping the bag in there, it actually is sucking or vacuum any of that dust and debris out of there. So not only is it better for the individual dumping the bag in, but it's just better from a general maintenance point of view. And the other big thing is around the calibration and load cells. Again, these ingredients are very specific inclusion rates.
00:16:50
Speaker
And this microsystem can only be as accurate as the load cells and calibration allow it to be. So having your scales regularly calibrated, regularly checked is important to ensure that it's getting truly getting the accuracy that it can have.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And well, these always seem like a very, they're very labor intensive and they take a lot of time, you know, to hand add ingredients like this, right? To change a formulation and being able to automate all that seems like it would be a really big boost to me and how quickly you could get a feed made. I mean, you mentioned earlier, you know, upwards of 30% more efficiency just from this bottleneck. That seems huge to me. How can these,
00:17:28
Speaker
systems contribute to efficient feed production, especially in a day and age where labor is tight, it's less people, you're trying to get more done with less in general.
00:17:38
Speaker
So when I go in a mill, most labor intensive areas would be around bagging system as well as actually the filling of the finished product on the back end. The other one is this hand adds or weighing out these micro ingredients. As you mentioned, labor is such a difficult thing to come by these days. Weighing out these ingredients one after another, day after day is a very labor intensive job with
00:18:00
Speaker
as I said, potentially some dusty type materials that you're working with. Not only that, well it's very repetitive. It's been a long day weighing these out over and over again. You have to be very careful in what you're doing because it needs to be so precise and so accurate that it's hard to find that individual that wants to do this day in and day out.
00:18:19
Speaker
and does a really good job of it and stays at it. A micro ingredient system doesn't need to take the breaks. It doesn't not show up for work. It doesn't try to get in a rush on Friday. It's just that dependability. It's one of the most common areas if they don't have one to either get one or to add more micro bins to help decrease the labor in this area. Allow those people to focus on more of a value-added area in the mill.
00:18:41
Speaker
especially because unlike humans, it doesn't make mistakes. I don't care who you are, weighing out ingredients all day, every day, you're gonna eventually get distracted and you're gonna make some mistakes. It's just human nature, right? Those aren't the tasks that we're good at. That's why automation exists.
00:18:57
Speaker
So there's the concept of getting there right on the front end, but the huge value is also just the data collection and the recording of what actually happened in the back end. So from like the liability standpoint, right? So if a female gets a call from a customer, they have a complaint that their fee wasn't made right, or they had a problem with the health of their animals, they're able to go back and truly
00:19:18
Speaker
say this is what the automation said here's how accurate it is here's record time after time no but it did the job is that it was gonna do as compared to trusting that somebody measured outright that lack of clarity creates more questions creates less trust in the whole process right so that automation and the specific micro system helps build that level of trust for the customer that you know they truly are getting what they are
00:19:42
Speaker
Everyone hates to hear it, but we are entering a day and age where you need more and more backups. You need records. You need paperwork showing everything you've done. And anytime you can take that paperwork away from an individual to have to do and have it automatically filled in in the backend, that's all the better, right?
Emerging Trends in Micro Ingredient Systems
00:19:59
Speaker
Are there any like emerging trends or developments in micro ingredients? What's on the cutting edge? What are you looking forward to?
00:20:07
Speaker
So I would say some of the emerging trends and developments of micro ingredient systems is okay. Now we've taken the hand add aspect away from the individual. So we have a more accurate as well as they're not having to weigh out these ingredients all day, every day. However, there's still a couple of opportunities where the, there is potential for human error. And so we guys manufacturers are trying to take those out. You have all these micro bins and they all have labels and whatnot, but the concept of a new person would open the wrong bin.
00:20:37
Speaker
and dumped the wrong ingredient in the wrong bin. The system thinks it has the correct ingredient and keeps weighing that ingredient out. So what we've implemented now is magnetic locking lids. So the actual lids in the microsystem are magnetically locked and each ingredient is given a barcode so where it scans the bag to say this is the correct ingredient.
00:20:58
Speaker
This is X ingredient. Then you scan the bin, you're going to put it on and it actually releases it and opens it up. Like kind of like if you go to our thing area where it opens the proper door, it allows it to put it in. So it only can put it in proper bin for that ingredient.
00:21:13
Speaker
That's a big area of trend. Another one is we're seeing more and more of what we call our dust free lid or vacuum lid as I touched on earlier. Now the amount of labor that's being needed is just to dump the bag into the bin. So how can we take away that dust, take away that mess?
00:21:32
Speaker
And just overall really help with the cleanliness and appearance of the male as well as any potential for cross-contamination. Again, especially when you're thinking drugs or some type of ingredient that would kill one species where it's good for another and how to prevent that. So those are two areas that we're seeing the most developments. The other ones is just, you know, continuing to further refine on how accurate these systems can get and how precise they can get.
00:21:56
Speaker
I imagine that's got to be an uncomfortable conversation if you accidentally have an ingredient in the log species and it ends up killing some. That's not a fun lawsuit to eventually deal with. So I imagine those must be nice. Well, thank you so much for sitting down and talking with me today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity that's based on this. As I mentioned, microsystems is just one of the main areas of opportunity for automation and new equipment to decrease the amount of labor
00:22:26
Speaker
increase the efficiency of the mill and increase the level of tracking and traceability. So I mean, these are the key things that mills are trying to do these days and micro ingredient system is usually to the top of that list.
00:22:38
Speaker
And I'm sure if any listeners out there have questions, you would be happy to answer them at Easy Automation, which we will have all your website and everything linked in the description of this podcast. So go check them out and thank everyone out there for listening. Have a great rest of your week and stay safe out there.